by Tim Snyder in Sojourners (thanks to Mary Jane F.)
As a theologian, I get nervous when reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer becomes all too relevant. I’m the kind of theologian who would rather not find myself in what some scholars refer to as a Bonhoeffer moment.
Let me explain. In the lead up to the 2024 election, some conservative religious leaders and influencers drew on Bonhoeffer’s life and writings to claim that Americans were facing a “Bonhoeffer moment,” which they intended as a reference to his alleged involvement in a covert plot to assassinate Hitler. As the International Bonhoeffer Society and relatives from the Bonhoeffer family said at the time, it was an inappropriate and dangerous misuse of his legacy.
The irony of this distortion was that it was used to justify the use of violence if the Democrats were to win in November. In reality, Bonhoeffer played only a very minor role in the conspiracy, and that role didn’t involve guns or explosive devices. Most often, he was a chaplain to the co-conspirators. He prayed with them. He offered Holy Communion. And he helped reflect on the Christian ethical implications of their actions. Spoiler alert: He didn’t think guilt could be avoided, only accepted, writing that the idea that one could “keep himself pure from the contamination arising from responsible action” was a “self-deception.”
I was thinking of all this recently, when I was asked by a group of pastors to help lead a workshop for federal employees who are people of faith and who wanted to discern their ethical responsibilities in these early days of the second Trump administration.
Despite having spent the last decade interviewing people of faith about their working lives, and despite having written a book on the topic, I found myself at a loss for what to say. This was personal. Members of my immediate family are federal employees and contractors. My grandfather spent most of his career in the foreign service, including stints at USAID and Voice of America. My grandmother was a congressional staffer. The value of civil service is sacred to me. But this was different too. Whatever else we might say about the first few weeks of this Trump administration, it sure isn’t business as usual. It doesn’t seem like the typical scripts and strategies that fueled opposition to the first Trump administration will be enough this time around. (continued)